REPORTS FROM MEDILL STUDENTS
WASHINGTON—After the Boston Marathon bombings, legislators and the public have questioned how officials handled the attacks and whether or not it could have been prevented. “My fear is that the Boston bombers may have succeeded because our system failed,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee at the first public Congressional hearing on the terrorist attack. “We learned over a decade ago, the danger in failing to connect the dots. … (Continue reading . . .)
The launch of President Barack Obama’s Open Government Initiative on his very first day in office was ostensibly in response to the supposedly opaque operations of the Bush administration. As his time in office goes on, however, it becomes increasingly apparent that this drive for transparency does not extend to the president’s counterterrorism programs, and, more specifically, his use of drone strikes. Although drone strikes are a more recent phenomenon in the public eye, their … (Continue reading . . .)
WASHINGTON – For the first time in its history, Pakistan will hold general elections Saturday in which the country’s first popularly elected government will hand over power to another democratically elected government, despite a series of deadly attacks by the Taliban aimed at disrupting the elections. The Obama administration wanted to “see credible, free and fair elections on a timely basis,” said U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson, but is playing no favorites among candidates … (Continue reading . . .)
In the decade since the US-led invasion of Iraq, think tanks and scholars have discussed the profound, distorting effect that media coverage appears to have had on public understanding of the decision to go to war in 2003. The question: is today’s news media coverage of Iran’s nuclear capability falling into the same trap? Two experts at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland delved into the issue with a … (Continue reading . . .)
WASHINGTON—As the pieces of the Boston Marathon attacks started coming together and a clearer picture began to emerge of the two men suspected of carrying out the bombings on April 15, the question turned from “Why did this happen?” to “How did this happen?” Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, are ethnic Chechen Muslims who came to the U.S. a decade ago, according to reports. That two immigrants are allegedly responsible for the … (Continue reading . . .)
Following is a Q&A with Medill’s Josh Meyer, lead instructor for the Oil Change Project and director of education and outreach for the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. Where did the students travel? The students traveled to the Persian Gulf, the Philippines, Ecuador (the smallest OPEC nation), the U.S. national labs in Berkeley, Calif., the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Louisiana, and other locations. Over the course of the three months, what did the students do, or discover … (Continue reading . . .)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a three-month investigation, a team of graduate student reporters from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communication has found that the United States’ unquenchable thirst for oil has shaped nearly every aspect of the country’s domestic and foreign policy for more than five decades, often in controversial and dangerous ways. The graduate student team today (May 9) begins publication of its findings on the national security implications of U.S. energy policy. … (Continue reading . . .)
U.S. officials are scrutinizing student visa holders to ensure compliance, but the director of an international student program says that it likely won’t impact foreign exchange students.
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The United States Postal Service has processed more than 2 trillion pieces of mail since anthrax was mailed to politicians and members of the media in an attack that killed five and sickened 17 in 2001. Last week letters containing the deadly toxin ricin were mailed to President Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland. This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said that an envelope found … (Continue reading . . .)
“I don’t think there is another city in the U.S. that has as an extensive and integrated camera network as Chicago has,” said Michael Chertoff, former secretary of Homeland Security. Chicago, although the third largest city in the country, has the largest number of surveillance cameras with estimates placing the total number at more than 10,000, a number that concerns privacy advocates. Camera advocates say they help to deter and solve crimes, but groups like … (Continue reading . . .)
